RIGHT TO REPLY

Outright fraud at the U.S. Treasury

Christopher Monckton of Brenchley, high priest of climate skepticism, advised Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, wrote leaders for the Yorkshire Post, was editor of the Catholic paper The Universe, managing editor of the Telegraph Sunday Magazine, assistant editor of Today, and consulting editor of the Evening Standard. He invented the million-selling "Eternity Puzzles," "Sudoku X" and a promising treatment for infections. See the Science & Public Policy Institute.

If one accuses the government of fraud, one sounds like a wild-eyed, part-shaven, pointy-headed, scraggly-bearded, woolly-pullied, foaming-at-the-mouth extremist.

So be it, then. The U.S. Treasury is currently engaged in a fraud running into the trillions of dollars. There. I’ve said it. Let me wipe the foam from my mouth and explain.

The Republicans who currently command the House of Representatives, rightly anticipating that Mr. Obama’s massive vote-buying among those whom his party’s policies have imprisoned in permanent, cringing dependence upon Auntie Sam for everything from food stamps (getting on for 50 million claimants) to Obailoutcare, decided to show who was boss by setting a limit on the amount the U.S. Treasury was allowed to borrow.

That limit was – and is – $16.7 trillion. A trillion is a 1 with 12 noughts on the end. It is a million millions. It’s a whole lot. $16.7 trillion is 16.7 whole lots. You could buy most of my art collection with that.

But Obust just went on spending. By close of what passes for business May 17, the U.S. debt subject to congressional limit rose to $16,699,396,000,000.00. That is what passes for a smidgen below the limit.

But Obankrupt just went on spending. By close of what once passed for business July 12, he had borrowed another $51 billion.

Yet by close of casino July 12, according to the Treasury’s accounting, the U.S. debt subject to congressional limit had risen, compared with 56 days previously, by exactly $0,000,000,000,000.00.

What about the net $51 billion in extra borrowing over the past couple of months? Secretary Lew has vanished it.

If you think I’m foaming at the mouth, here is the Treasury’s own graph:

Since May 17, the graph shows the debt subject to limit (in green) coinciding with the limit set by Congress (in orange), a suspiciously straight line.

Secretary Lew even went so far as to write to John Boehner, the dozy speaker of the House, saying he was going to fiddle the books. He said in his May 17 letter that he would be implementing what he called the “standard set of extraordinary measures” [if they’re extraordinary they’re not standard, Jack, baby] so that the Treasury could go on borrowing in defiance of the will of the people’s elected representatives, while declaring that it was not borrowing anything extra at all.

What would the Founding Fathers have thought? Look what a stushie there was when King George’s government proposed to put a modest sales tax of half a crown a pound on tea. If His Majesty’s government had tried to hide two-thirds of a trillion dollars, the Founding Fathers would have had a proper excuse for a stramash.

In the commercial sector, false accounting is a felony. Armies of overpaid, under-skilled regulators are waiting to pounce upon every cent that goes astray.

In the State sector, false accounting is also supposed to be a felony. Yet armies of overpaid, under-skilled Republicans are waiting to draw their next fat check out of the Treasury. As long as their checks keep coming, they will not – will not – ask the right questions and demand honest answers and straight accounting.

Corruption was once something that happened only in third-world countries. But then, the current administration’s wanton profligacy with other people’s money has reduced the United States to third-world status. Bankruptcy and corruption tend to go hand in hand.

What should the Republicans do? Just for once, they should act honorably, determinedly, decisively. They should demand that the U.S. Treasury publishes honest figures showing how much the debt has continued to rise notwithstanding the strict limit set upon it by the people’s elected representatives in Congress. Then they should impeach the law-breakers.

No administration can commit a more serious offense against democracy than to spend money Congress has not only not authorized it to spend but has explicitly forbidden it to spend.

In defense of Secretary Lew, counsel has attempted to argue that there was no fraud because our Jack openly wrote and told John Boehner he was going to cook the books. Since there was no deception, there was no fraud.

However, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, you will not buy that excuse for an instant. For everyone, even Secretary Lew, knows John Boehner is asleep inside his teapot, and the Republicans are asleep at the switch.

Even on the generous assumption that the GOP can read, and on the even more generous assumption that they do, and on the lavish assumption that they understand what they read, Secretary Lew correctly calculated that they could be counted upon not to act upon what little they understood. They would say not a lot and do nothing at all while the Treasury fiddled the books and sold their nation into Chinese ownership.

Guilty, upon mine honor! And is that the verdict of you all? Take the administration down.

Talking of trillion-dollar frauds, the latest monthly Global Warming Prediction Index from the Lord Monckton Foundation is available here. According to the satellites of Remote Sensing Systems Inc., there has been no global warming at all for 199 months. Will it reach 200 months? Watch this space.